Bharti Airtel emerged as the top buyer with radiowave chunks worth Rs 6,856.76 crore in the spectrum auctions that concluded on Wednesday. This gives the company the largest mid-band spectrum pool in the country.
It was followed by Vodafone Idea Ltd, which bid for spectrum valued at about Rs 3,510.4 crore and Reliance Jio, which acquired spectrum worth Rs 973.62 crore.
In total, 141.4 MHz radiowaves worth Rs 11,340.78 crore were sold, which is just 12 per cent of the Rs 96,238 crore minimum value that government had estimated.
The airwaves worth Rs 6,856.76 crore bagged by Bharti Airtel were from the 97 MHz spectrum in 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz and 2,100 MHz frequency bands. This amounts to around 60 per cent of total airwaves sold. Its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom has bought 15 MHz with an outlay of Rs 1,001 crore.
Cash-strapped Vodafone Idea bought spectrum worth Rs 3,510 crore to expand its 4G network by renewing 900 MHz spectrum in UP West and West Bengal and improving its 900 MHz spectrum holding in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP East and Kolkata.
The frequencies worth Rs 973.63 crore bagged by Reliance Jio included 5 MHz paired spectrum in 1,800 Mhz band in Bihar at a cost of Rs 420.25 crore and 9.4 Mhz in West Bengal at Rs 553.38 crore.
